One last EBOB reading before host, Lauren Becker leaves for the wild west and turns over the reins to a new host! Please come hear some great writers read their work, and stay for dancing and drinking and all kinds of silliness in a sort of impromptu going-away celebration!! Readers include Joe Clifford, Lauren O’Neal, and Kate Petersen, with others to be announced. Lauren Traetto of Vouched Books will be there with a fabulous assortment of small press books for sale. Bring your brains and hearts! Looking forward to seeing all of you!

Shake off that tryptophan stupor and get to the Layover for some low-carb nourishment for the brain! East Bay on the Brain does its thang, a little past due, but please forgive with this offering of fantastic readers, including: Randall Babtkis, Evan Karp, Caitlin Myer, Lauren Traetto, Mg Roberts, and maybe one more. Put down the remote, leave Black Friday behind, wrap your brain in its finest and join us!

Randall Babtkis is the author of a poetry chapbook, Banister, and is currently at work on his first novel. His work has been featured in The Quarterly (Vintage), Columbia Review, Slash Magazine, and Five Fingers Review. He edits Mission at Tenth, San Francisco’s lone inter-arts print magazine, and teaches at the California Institute of Integral Studies.

Evan Karp is working on his bio. It includes the San Francisco Chronicle, SF Weekly, SF Arts, Quiet Lightning, Litseen.com, something like poetry, a loop station, and a single speed bike.

Caitlin Myer’s short stories have been published in Joyland, Eleven Eleven, and charming, short-lived literary magazines. Her first novel, Hoodoo, was serialized on Fiction365. She is the founder of the literary reading series Portuguese Artists Colony, and she lives wherever she puts down her suitcase. Myer is not Portuguese.

MG Roberts is a Kundiman Fellow, Kelsey Street Press member, and MFA graduate of New College of California. Her work has appeared in journals including the Stanford Journal of Asian American Studies, Bombay Gin, and Web Conjunctions, and her first full-length poetry manuscript, not so, sea is forthcoming from Durga Press.

Lauren Traetto is the San Francisco Vicereine of Vouched Books, contributing editor for Fanzine, and managing editor of Coconut Books. Her chapbook is forthcoming from 421 Atlanta in Spring 2014.

East Bay on the Brain (EBOB) will stimulate neurotransmitters once again on May 25 at The Layover Lounge in downtown Oakland, 6:30-8:30pm. Fiction, non-fiction, poetry, and performance will shake your skulls – in an excellent way, of course.

At the last EBOB, I was rightly chastised for not keeping the website current. I suck. Mea culpa. I am wearing a hairshirt and engaging in self-flagellation as I write this, even though I’m Jewish. But I really am sorry and I hereby begin the healing.

So, hey, there’s a new EBOB coming up! I just confirmed with the wonderful owners of our beloved homeland, The Layover Lounge, that we will rock your noggins on:

MAY 25, 2013
6:30 – 8:30pm

Readers to be announced. I promise they will be awesome. When have they not been awesome? Seriously, if an EBOB has had any non-awesome, I want to hear about it. No, I don’t. I hear on a pretty frequent basis that attendees enjoy the series. I see people return. They say hi to me. They talk to the readers. They buy books. They applaud loudly, some faint, and it’s not unheard of to see a girl lift her shirt to display … maybe another shirt? I don’t know. This is a classy series.

I swear I will update the site on a regular basis. At least prior to new events. You know that thing that says sign up here and we’ll alert you to future events? And you know how you’ve never been alerted? I am going to apologize once more and tell you that you probably won’t ever receive an email because I pretty much run this series on my own (a labor of love) AND pretty much run my literary journal (Corium Magazine. http://www.coriummagazine.com. Also awesome.), with little assistance, and, the journal being quarterly as well, I am known to put out an issue and host an EBOB during the same week.

If anyone would like to help me by taking on the email list and possibly doing some computer work and publicity, you would be compensated handsomely. If a handsome man is in attendance, I will have him say hi. Otherwise, I will buy you at least one drink. I’m no youngster, but I’m far from looking like Bea Arthur. In other words, I will not be handsome and/or compensate you much.

I’m super excited!! I know you are, too. Especially that woman who chastised me practically to the point of tears. Not really. I just said sorry and felt kind of bad and then had a drink and the dj started and I danced a little and forgot all about it until now. But I really felt kind of bad for a few minutes.

The East Bay has been the baby brother, the runt puppy, the mute stepsister of the Bay Area literary scene. Not really. We have a ton going on, but there’s maybe 20 tons going on in San Francisco. I love it all. Living somewhere that has lit events going on every night. Sometimes more than one. Sometimes more than two. I do. I love it.

On July 7, 2012, the East Bay will be the pushy older brother, the parrot that won’t shut up, the BEAST.

The Beast Crawl will feature 20 reading events at bars, galleries, cafes and other spectacular venues in downtown Oakland.

EBOB is proud to beast it up at the usual haunt, The Layover, in the third (of three) legs of the Crawl. Readers include:

*Paul Corman-Roberts, Fiction Editor, Full of Crow, author of 19th St. Station (FOC Chapbook Series 2011)

*Ann Ryles, fiction writer and playwright

*Kerry Donoghue, fiction writer

EBOB is also pleased to welcome Edward Mullany, author of If I Falter at the Gallows (Publishing Genius Press 2011). From Brooklyn. The one in New York. It’s not close to here. Lord knows when this wonderful writer will be back. You should plan on being there.

This one is not one to miss. EBOB should never be missed. But, if you are going to miss an EBOB, this is not the one.

Suggested donation: $3-5. This is a suggestion. Meaning it is not required. If you have only a few crumpled dollar bills or a fistful of nickels and dimes, buy yourself a drink to help thank The Layover for their abiding support. Start searching your jeans pockets and couch cushions: We’ll see you on the 14th!!

Check out the article in this month’s Oakland Magazine, in which I tell the world (i.e. the wise people who read Oakland Mag) about EBOB and the fabulous East Bay literary community. Turns out a very talented writer friend from far away is coming into town in January and I happen to have a book called Things About Me and You coming out in January as part of an anthology called Shut Up/Look Pretty, so I’m thinking there’s a good chance that EBOB will rear its gorgeous head around then! Well, the stunning writers/readers will rear. I’ll just be a happy goofball, thrilled to see you all there. Stay tuned for pending announcements!

OK. Just try. Seriously, you need to settle down. It’s still 3 weeks from yesterday. All right. You can get a little excited. Don’t overdo. It’s only going to the THE BEST EBOB EVER. Along with every other EBOB thus far.

Look at these gorgeous readers. Just LOOK. And then show up to hear them, because … you know, they’re more gorgeous in person.